It has taken just three centuries for human growth and rising industrial economies to bring the delicate relationship between ice and humans to a dangerous precipice. Ice carved Earth's landscape to its present state - the sharp Alpine peaks of Europe, the vast Great Lakes of North America, the majestic valleys of Yosemite National Park and the deeply incised fjords of Norway.

But as the climate change debate becomes more heated, are we at risk of losing these precious formations? Dr. Henry N. Pollack, author of A World Without Ice, explains why our cold natural wonders are disappearing while humans are prospering.

Dr. Henry N Pollack

Dr. Henry N. Pollack and his colleagues on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore. Pollack has been a professor of geophysics at the University of Michigan for more than forty years, travels regularly to Antarctica, and has conducted scientific research on all seven continents.

He now serves as a science adviser to Al Gore’s Climate Project. Also the author of A World Without Ice, he lives in Ann Arbor.